As soon as the importance of clean energy and conservation of natural resources caught on in our nation, plans for developing sustainable energy exploded. Unfortunately, in the guise of green, greed soon took over.

In plans for sustainable energy development, the San Luis Valley is promoted because it has lots of sun, low population, and few voters to tell legislators and developers to go fly a kite. So who cares if the Valley is sacrificed for industrial-scale solar arrays and a 235-kilovolt line on poles about 150 feet high to deliver electricity to the Front Range? I do.

Not long ago, we were assured that the array near Hooper would provide energy for the Valley, not for exportation. But that was before the government, major utilities like Xcel Energy, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association (a conglomerate of a great many REAs, including SLVREA), manufacturers of components from Europe to India, and installers large and small decided that the San Luis Valley is a plum, ripe for the picking.

The Governor’s Energy Office has prepared a report called REDI, describing Renewable Resource Generation Areas, to comply with Colorado Senate Bill 07-091. In this report, and in national projections too, the San Luis Valley has been pinpointed as a prime area for generating and exporting solar energy.

Since it is now against the law to export our water, Front Rangers have at last found a use for the San Luis Valley. Industries, businesses, institutions, and residents on the Front Range will relax because they will not have to deal with reducing their use of electricity or with the expense of installing photovoltaic panels and wind towers on their own property, where the electricity is used.

Next, some county commissioners in the Valley, apparently eager for tax revenues whether from solar energy or the Village at Wolf Creek, have supported proposals for larger arrays and the big transmission line. I was astonished by the vitriolic tone used by these gentlemen in their scapegoating of a billionaire property owner and others in the opposition.

Everyone knows that I am no math whiz, so it should be no surprise that I do not understand how the Valley as a whole is supposed to benefit economically from an immense transmission line or large solar projects. My limited understanding goes only as far as the afore-mentioned county revenue and the money to be made by individuals who profit by selling private land to utility companies.

No one has told me the number of permanent jobs that will exist after construction has been completed. No one has explained to me what kinds of jobs they might be.

I advocate sustainable energy and conservation of natural resources, and I wholeheartedly support small installations, serving sites or at most the areas where they exist. I do not support any vast network that destroys the nation’s land and wildlife, disrupts lifestyles, and invites massive rolling blackouts.

I would like to see scores of installations in the Valley like one I visited this summer, where an enterprising farmer is irrigating half a section of his land with his own array of 60-some photovoltaic panels. I was surprised to see the very small amount of land that this installation occupies, and, without a huge transmission line, the farmer will be able to sell surplus energy by putting it into the grid in winter when he is not irrigating.

I would like to see more smart innovations like solar lightbulbs and DOW’s solar aerators in lakes, without any transmission lines. I would like to see solar or wind systems in the construction plans of every new public or private construction project, wherever possible, instead of the destruction of open land and forests.

Agriculture is the largest segment of Colorado’s economy, thereby warranting our political support, but tourism is second, so tourism also warrants our political support. Other segments of the economy and of our society, that would suffer the negative effects of massive solar and transmission projects in the Valley, also warrant our political support.

Open space and scenery are major assets, attracting people to visit the state and our region. Much effort and investment have been devoted to promoting tourism, but enormous solar arrays and the huge transmission line would compromise our uncluttered scenery and tourism.

Anyone who imagines that such big utility projects might blend into the scenery should take a look at Malta, a couple of miles south of Leadville, where tourists must look past numerous power lines and a huge transformer station to see our state’s two highest peaks. Visualize visitors approaching Great Sand Dunes or crossing Poncha and La Veta Passes and what they hope to see when they get here.

Supporters of new projects tend to belittle NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) arguments. Are residents expected to just roll over and accept impairments to their own backyards?

Many people have chosen to live and work in the Valley because they care a great deal about our rural backyard, with its unique recreational, scenic, and cultural assets. These people do not wish to see their property, their neighborhoods, and the entire Valley affected negatively by enormous solar installations and transmission lines serving other regions.

Let’s not allow the San Luis Valley to become a sacrifice zone for the benefit of self-serving corporations and the Front Range.